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People who ride a lot may want more than one bike, with a bike specialized for a particular purpose, such as going downhill on mountain paths, or participating in time trials. However, I feel quite strongly that everyone should have a friendly bike that they can ride around their neighborhood, with children, maybe run an errand on, enjoy a sunny day, etc.
The prototypical friendly bike in English-speaking countries was the English 3-speed, most familiarly made by Raleigh for 3 or 4 decades. In its most perfect form, it had an upright riding position, an internal hub with three-speeds, a leather saddle, a dyno-hub and light, brakes and a basket or rear rack or both. You could get seats for small children to ride on. You could get panniers and so forth for touring. It was like a Model T or VW bug. You could do just about anything with it, even though it was not particularly fast or powerful.
You don't actually want to buy an old Raleigh, tho. You just want the same characteristics in a modern bike.
The handlebars are higher than the seat. You can do this to almost any bike, by swapping out the riser and/or lowering the seat. Just lowering the seat can make for an inefficient, unpleasant riding position that might make your knees hurt.
Also known as planetary gears, Raleigh owned Sturmey-Archer and Sturmey-Archer 3 speed internal hubs were on non-Raleigh bikes in the past. Sturmey-Archer still makes internal hubs, but I would recommend one of the other makes. I personally like the Shimano Nexus 8 speed, but their 3 speed is a lot cheaper and much better (wider range) than the old Sturmey Archer. SRAM and Rohloff also make internal hubs. The SRAM is cheaper than (most of) the Nexus line. The Rohloff is a lot more expensive, has 14 gears and is primarily used by mountain bikers who really want their gears to resist twig intrusion effectively.
Derailleurs (that mess on the back wheel and sometimes the front wheel of most bikes with 10 speeds or more) are non-intuitive to learn and require regular maintenance to continue shifting properly. It is very easy to inadvertantly buy derailleurs that are inappropriate for your purposes (e.g. you are pulling a heavy load and they are designed for light and fast; the low gear isn't low enough for you to make it up a hill, etc.). Worst of all, if you stop abruptly while in a fairly high gear, you may need to lift the rear wheel and spin it to change down to a gear you can start the bike in. If you have a 40 pound kid sitting behind you, your life at this point really sucks.
The friendliest bikes are bikes you can put a kid seat on. But if you put a kid seat behind your seat, how are you going to mount the bike? Swing a leg over and decapitate your offspring? A step-through configuration is best. Also known as a ladies' or women's frame, or a drop-frame, a step-through configuration also means that if you stop short and come off your seat to stand over your bike, you are guaranteed not to smash tender bits against the top tube.
A friendly bike is a bike you can get on and off of with ease. The step-thru goes a long ways towards that goal, but a bike with "relaxed" geometry, "flat foot technology" or a "crank forward" design means you can sit on your bike and put your foot flat on the ground -- while still having an efficient, non-knee-injury inducing position while riding. If you imagine the bent-over rider, rotate her back to an upright riding position, and then rotate her slightly back further (but not all the way to recumbent), that's the goal. Electra's Townie and Amsterdam have played this up a lot, but other bikes have similar friendly traits. If you load up a flat-foot bike with a bunch of groceries and a kid, and have to stop at a light, you won't have to perch there in fear of falling over and cracking your child's head open. And just out on your own, no more "dorkstanding".
Most racing bikes have seats that are more like little perches for skinny male asses. No one ever sits upright on them -- if you try, you'll know why! The racers rave about gel seats, because they are trying to reduce vibration. You don't care about vibration, tho. You're not going to be going that fast because you're chatting with the neighbors (and your kid) and taking in the view. You need plushly magnificent. Start with Brooks (another Raleigh subdivision, back in the day) and work your way out from there.
As a general rule of thumb, you should be able to buy this kind of bike in 2009 in the US for between $300 and $400 (for a single speed), around $500 (for a three speed) or around $700 to $800 (for an 8 speed), new at a bike shop. You may be able to find something pretty close for a lot cheaper if you buy used. Bikes with derailleurs, a more ordinary geometry, etc. may be substantially cheaper (online at Wal-mart or similar, you might find a bike for $100 or less). But a lot of people buy cheap bikes they can't stand to ride. My goal is to help people love riding their bicycle.
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Copyright 2009, Rebecca Allen Created: July 10, 2009 Updated: July 10, 2009